1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to watercraft and, in particular, to a watercraft that has a plurality of propulsion units.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many watercrafts include outboard motors that are used as a watercraft propulsion unit. In such watercrafts, the outboard motors are typically disposed at the stern of the watercraft, a main station is disposed in the middle of a hull of the watercraft, and a substation is disposed above the main station.
Such watercraft can include a remote controller lever for operating the outboard motors on each steering station. In addition, one or each of the plural outboard motors can be operated by each station. These steering stations are configured such that they are selectively used depending on an arbitrary selection by an operator, and all the outboard motors can be controlled through lever operations at the selected steering station.
In certain cases, the remote controller lever is mechanically connected to the outboard motors by wires and the like. In such cases, operation of the lever of either steering station can causes the lever of the other station to be operated accordingly, and thus a plurality of the levers for operating the outboard motors can be constantly kept in the same operating state.
However, other watercraft use a remote controller in which displacement of a lever is transmitted to the control unit of the outboard motors as an operation signal. In such watercraft, each of a plurality of remote controller levers for operating the outboard motors can be operated independently, and thus an operating state, under which a displacement of either remote controller lever is different from a displacement of the other remote controller lever, tends to occur.
If the operating states of the plurality of the remote controller levers are different from one another, a problem can occur with steering when switching occurs between steering stations because the operation signals inputted to the outboard motors can change abruptly when the steering stations are switched. Thus, for example, Patent Document JP-B-3019984 describes a watercraft with a system for preventing abrupt changes in operation signal inputted to the outboard motors upon switching between the steering stations.
With watercrafts having a plurality of outboard motors, certain watercraft are configured such that the outboard motor that is operated can be selected using a selecting switch to operate the selected outboard motor with a remote controller lever. In such watercraft, the selecting switch is used for switching between the steering stations.